Scott Atwell Star Trek Discussion thread (Series and Films) (6 Viewers)

[Nelson Au]

"I see I made one serious error!" Added another to Lee!

 

[Nelson Au]

I wonder if Mr. Shatner and Mr. Nimoy had a toast to each other.

 

[FanCollector]

It certainly wouldn't surprise me if they did. It's been quite a ride for them, hasn't it?Scott has plenty to do in The Galileo Seven.

 

[Nelson Au]

"You got your hands full!"Yes, Scott definitely had his work cut out for him on the Galileo. Both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy certainly have had amazing careers. Probably not what either was hoping or expecting. But it worked out. I hope they had great birthdays!

 

[Ockeghem]

I did end up watching Amok Time last night. A wonderful episode, of course. In the future I may ask a trivia question having to do with this episode.

 

[FanCollector]

Scotty has his hands full cleaning up Mr. Spock's messes in The Paradise Syndrome and The Tholian Web.

 

[Nelson Au]

"My bairns. My poor bairns".Two more for Lee.Can't go wrong watching Amok Time Scott.

 

[FanCollector]

He is busy throughout Mirror, Mirror, although if he had been a little busier, then maybe they would have had the automatic setting available after bypassing to auxiliary power. I'm just sayin'.

 

[Nelson Au]

Now, you're an engineer!

 

[FanCollector]

He does his best in By Any Other Name, but his drinking accomplishes more than his tinkering in that one.

 

[Nelson Au]

Put him right under the table! Our excitable repair man is showing to be a very busy engineer. That was kind of my thought, was he really doing a lot of engineering stuff, or in command whenever Kirk was off the ship. By the way, I just got notification that the Season 2 book just shipped. I hope they box it as I requested!

 

[FanCollector]

I think the fact that he was available for both contributed to his status on the show. You could cut to Scott in engineering when everyone was on the ship or you could cut to him in command when Kirk and Spock were away from the ship.How are you counting supervisory examples like The Immunity Syndrome? We don't see him do very much hands-on stuff there, but he is directing others to do engineering things throughout.

 

[Nelson Au]

Well, like Scott's example of The Changling, Scotty was supervisory there of the men. And Scott did push the buttons to make the ship go in reverse. So I'd say in both cases, he was doing the Engineering role.

 

[Nelson Au]

Guys, thought I'd chime in a little on TNG. I've been watching slowly the new TNG blu rays over time when I can sit down and watch an episode. I'm slowly making my way through the 4th season. I watched several recently, Data's Day, The Wounded, Future Imperfect, Final Mission, Clues, and First Contact. The blu rays look great, though the live action just doesn't match the fine photography of Jerry Finnerman's contributions. They still look great and the episodes from this season still hold up very well. The reason for this post is because I hadn't seen them in a long while and First Contact always stood out to me. Done from the POV of the aliens and their reactions to the shock of being visited by our heroes is some great story telling. I really appreciated the acting and writing in this episode. And how intelligently it was done. The leader Durken of the alien world is smart and very much a match to Picard, yet with opposing points of view. And the comedy Bebe Neuwirth adds a nice touch and it was nice to see Carolyn Seymour in a positive stargazing role rather then as a mean Romulan or English house lady tormenting Janeway. I still laugh during the dancing scene in Data's Day!

 

[FanCollector]

How are you finding the blu-ray process shots as compared to the originals? As I understand it, it's somewhere between leaving them alone and making entirely new effects. How do the models look in HD?Scott helps pull out the plug in The Ultimate Computer and he does some very fine jewelry work in Elaan of Troyius.

 

[Nelson Au]

Hi Lee,I have not done a direct A-B comparison of some of the later effects of the third and forth season to see if the effects shots are exact duplicates. I don't know all the episodes that well. But of the ones I have seen numerous times on DVD, such as Booby Trap, The Enemy, Deja Q, Yesterday's Enterprise, Tin Man and of course The Best of Both Worlds, the remastered effects look great! This is the part that makes me a little sad about TOS. The original model of the Enterprise was very well done and it's a shame so few shots of it were done and no original film elements were saved or survived. The TNG series really benefits from all the miniature footage that was saved. So they simply found the right shots, that were well documented in cans of film, and scanned and reassembled in their original construction, except digitally. The model of the Enterprise D looks so sharp and clear, you can now see so much detail on the model. The planets are recreated if I'm not mistaken with new digital paintings by the same matte painting artist who did the TOS work, at least in the odd numbered seasons. The even numbered seasons are done by another effects house with less then impressive, but passable work. The live action footage is as eye opening as TOS was. Make-up and hair are so clear on the actors. The quality of the sets are more revealed. There are many more favorite episodes coming up and I look forward to seeing them!One thug is for sure, the TNG effects work all look appropriate and in place. Unlike the TOS remaster where all the effects shots of ships were sometimes jarring.

 

[Nelson Au]

Two more good examples of Scotty doing his best works to save the ship.

 

[Ockeghem]

Hi Lee,I have not done a direct A-B comparison of some of the later effects of the third and forth season to see if the effects shots are exact duplicates. I don't know all the episodes that well. But of the ones I have seen numerous times on DVD, such as Booby Trap, The Enemy, Deja Q, Yesterday's Enterprise, Tin Man and of course The Best of Both Worlds, the remastered effects look great!This is the part that makes me a little sad about TOS. The original model of the Enterprise was very well done and it's a shame so few shots of it were done and no original film elements were saved or survived. The TNG series really benefits from all the miniature footage that was saved. So they simply found the right shots, that were well documented in cans of film, and scanned and reassembled in their original construction, except digitally. The model of the Enterprise D looks so sharp and clear, you can now see so much detail on the model. The planets are recreated if I'm not mistaken with new digital paintings by the same matte painting artist who did the TOS work, at least in the odd numbered seasons. The even numbered seasons are done by another effects house with less then impressive, but passable work.The live action footage is as eye opening as TOS was. Make-up and hair are so clear on the actors. The quality of the sets are more revealed. There are many more favorite episodes coming up and I look forward to seeing them!One thug is for sure, the TNG effects work all look appropriate and in place. Unlike the TOS remaster where all the effects shots of ships were sometimes jarring.

Nelson,The knowledge you have regarding the level of detail for the effects and the models of TOS and TNG is staggering. Seriously. Very informative!

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks Scott. But you're much too kind. I just know what I know from reading the news on the Trek sites and watching the supplements that came with the discs.Speaking of which, I saw something this morning that surprised me. I would be curious about you guys, but I read that trekweb is no longer on the web. I used to go there many years ago to see the latest in Star Trek news. But I left there in favor of Trekmovie. Though in the past 12 or 18 months, it's slowly loosing interest for me because it's coverage seems to weight more heavily on the new films. While that's certainly Star Trek news, I guess it's really the only new news in town these days with TOS and the other series no longer in production. Though they have been covering the blu ray releases and books and comics. So I have been gravitating towards Trekcore because they cover similar ground, but seem to cover more of it like the Cushman books and the soundtrack CDs with interviews with the people involved and the sample tracks to listen to. And what surprised me is they are now claiming they are the largest Star Trek news site on the web after the demise of trekweb. And I can see that given what Trekmovie does. Which seems more like a blog. I almost never go to StarTrek.com either as they don't seem that informative. It seems after the demise of the original StarTrek.com I was kind of put off. My totally ignorant impression is that it was taken over by Paramount and has become the corporate drone that is only there to promote the new movies. Though I must make an effort to go there for those audio recordings you found Lee and Scott that covers the episodes and the lost documents of TOS. Those are worth checking and I keep forgetting about that. So maybe it's not the evil entity I think it is. So what sites do you guys like to go to for Star Trek news? What do you think of the Star Trek websites, and StarTrek.com? And Scott, Lee, I am guessing its likely you are not going to indulge in the TNG blu rays? And it's cool if you're not into it.

 

[Nelson Au]

And here is something very cool by Daren Dochterman, who supervised the new effects for Star Trek The Motion Picture Directors Cut. He likes to mess around with the CGI model of the Enterprise and did this: I hope the link works.